ABSTRACT
In Margaret Atwood’s Circe/Mud Poems, the famous witch confronts Odysseus and tells him not to lie or pretend that he won’t leave her:
We know all about this “ruthless” story; the departing hero is not unique to Atwood. In fact, the folktale motif of a princess helping a hero, who then leaves, is a recurring pattern in ancient and modern literature. The motif figures prominently, for instance, in westerns of the 1950s and early 1960s. The schoolmarm, single or widowed with a young son, helps the stranger on the trail of a vicious outlaw. She binds the hero’s wounds, hides him, gets him information. Finally, he mounts his horse and rides off into the sunset, alone; or if not alone, then accompanied by a male companion, usually an amusing but unmistakably inferior sidekick.
